The story starts whenever Alex is being dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness by Galiant and he is over confident by not wanting to take any gifts from Jim. It then shifts to four months later when he is found dead at the abandoned bus by 8 moose hunters. From this point on Krakauer goes back to different people’s stories about Alex and where he came from. He finds out that he stayed with a guy name Westerberg for a good while and worked for him and his crew as well. It then goes on to how Alex left everything behind and went driving into the desert when he had to abandon his Datun. From here on Mc Candles became a leather tramp, traveling from places like Mexico, California, Montana, and ending up in Las Vegas were that chapter concludes when Alex meet Jan Bures and began to come on close contact with her showing his feelings he had towards her.